Thursday, February 25, 2010



More good news for MMP

A UMR poll [PDF] on MMP has found 49% support for the current voting system, and only 42% support for changing it. As before, support for democracy was higher amongst women and young people, while support for change was concentrated amongst men, the old, and rural people. As before, FPP is the most preferred alternative, and no-one likes John Key's preferred Supplementary Member system.

The poll also asked about possible changes to MMP, and found wide support. UMR spins this as "majority support for either changing MMP or ditching it entirely"; a better way of looking at it is that there is majority support for keeping MMP (though possibly with a few tweaks), with only a third wanting change. The fact that the government has announced plans to review MMP and modify it if necessary. This means that people won't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.